


facial constellations

by orphan_account



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Self Confidence Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 09:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18989488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kuchiki Byakuya has freckles.He wasn't very proud of that fact.





	facial constellations

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhh ok this was written on a long flight back from Hong Kong due to my inability to sleep on planes so it is fueled by the rambling thoughts of the sleep-deprived. Since then, this has been hanging around in my Documents taking up space but I didn't want to delete it because it's not...THAT bad for being spat out from the depths of my mad mind at 3:30am, ya get me? I am fully aware this is a random and far-fetched story but as I said: I didn't want to throw it out.
> 
> This has not been beta-read and is lacking in the tag department, so if errors are spotted or you feel as though a tag should be added, feel free to leave a comment and I'll fix it as soon as I am able :)

Kuchiki Byakuya has freckles.

He wasn't very proud of that fact. When he was a very young child, distant relatives and visitors would coo over the little spots of pigment on his face. He would smile gap-toothed smiles and laugh and be given sweets that he would eat and then refuse to eat his dinner because he was full on hard-boiled sugar and sticky syrup. 

Then Byakuya grew up. The distant relatives cooing over him became more distant and the smiles they smiled were full of teeth. People would quietly take him aside and exchange greetings and then they would introduce him to a girl his age and then leave, hoping for their daughter to eventually marry the Kuchiki heir. Byakuya never remembered their names.

The freckles never faded. If anything they grew darker. And he tried everything to make them disappear. His parents tried to make them disappear as well because freckles showed that he had been out in the sun and Kuchiki's were not commoners what worked in the fields out in the Rukongai. 

Creams and ointments purchased discreetly from shops containing all kinds of herbal remedies and not-so-herbal remedies that burned his skin pink and raw. Nothing worked, much to the increasing hysterics of his mother.

His dear grandfather watched quietly, voiced his disapproval loudly and then pulled his son aside. Byakuya was close enough to hear. Apparently his father was stricken with the cursed markings during his childhood too. Judging by the raised voices that soon echoed behind closed doors, Sojun was not of the opinion that they would fade like his did. His father returned to the table red-faced and flustered. His grandfather didn't return at all. 

By his mid-teens, Byakuya gave up trying to get rid his freckles. Almost the next day he discovered concealer.

His mother was horrified and claimed that no son of hers would wear ever makeup. For the first time in his life Byakuya refused to listen. When she turned to his father for support, Sojun just shrugged and mumbled into his morning paper. His grandfather smiled and told him to do what made him happy.

So he kept wearing it and no-one was all the wiser. Hisana tripped her way into his life and didn't mind that her husband wore makeup. Then as quickly as she appeared, she was gone and suddenly the world was full of judgemental people again. 

He discovered Rukia at the Academy and immediately saw her red-headed commoner friend. Tanned with no freckles skating around his face, Byakuya began to question the difference between a noble and a commoner.

(That commoner joined the Eleventh Division, transferred to the Sixth Division and became a close and trusted friend. Maybe even a best friend. Maybe something more.)

The entire fiasco with Rukia being almost executed was terrifying. The last thing Byakuya had promised Hisana was that he would look after her sister. Yet the first thing that he thought of was the clan. The very same clan that had forced him to hate his freckles when they were a part of him that would never be erased and to look down on the people of the Rukongai even though the most important people in his life came from there.

Yoruichi was the one who asked about why he was still covering up his freckles. When Byakuya failed to produce a valid reason not connected with the clan she gave him a disappointed look. For some reason, that cut far deeper than any snide comment by a distant relative. 

After that the clan came second.

Byakuya went back to the mansion and stepped in the shower. As the steam clouded the room he stared at Hisana's shampoo bottles sitting on shelves untouched for decades. When he stepped out, he gathered up the tubes of concealer and threw them in the bin. They clattered and rolled and Byakuya watched them tumble and then stared at himself in the mirror hung on the wall.

He looked younger, he decided eventually and without the pale mask he looked healthier with a faint tan from all the time spent in the training grounds. The paint-spatter across his nose brought out the blue in his eyes and the splash under his eyes accentuated his cheekbones and-

Maybe he should have done this a long time ago. 

A Hell Butterfly drifted through the window. It landed on a outstretched finger and relayed the message. Sasakibe's declared a meeting organised by Yamamoto. Something about trash on a lawn? 

Byakuya let out a breath through his teeth and shook the butterfly away. It was going to be one of those days.

The man reflected in the mirror wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue. The clan elders could go suck an egg. The markings on his face were a part of him. If they didn't like it, well, he was the clan head after all and well within his right to ignore them.

(Just wait until they saw the crazy zanpaktou spirit called Senbonzakura getting absolutely smashed in the garden.)

Byakuya Kuchiki has freckles. 

And he doesn't give a shit.


End file.
